A Spike in the Path: The Aftermath of the Lost Railroad
I always enjoy my hikes in our magical forest that is near our home. Just to be able to get out in nature and have it ground us does remarkable things to recharge our spirit and our journey. There is always amazing communication from the spirits of the land, the animals and the trees. It was on one of my recent hikes that the trees helped reveal to me about a period of history of the land I consistently hiked on.
I have hiked this same trail in this part of the forest numerous times over the past couple of years. It's amazing how little we know about the ancestors that inhabited the land before us and the events that took place on it. Everyday our footsteps take us on a journey through history without us even giving a thought about who or what traveled this same path before us. I knew that there was an Indigenous history in this part of the forest just from the many encounters I had with Cherokee spirits. But I wasn't aware of the history I was about to discover.
On one hike through the forest we journeyed the entire four miles to the Vista that gave us a beautiful overview of the majesty of the mountains before us. Ever since we had encountered the Rattlesnake on this rock, we have been more aware of our surroundings on the rock. While sitting on the rock my soulmate looked to the side and saw a strange looking object. We picked it up and would later discover that it was an old railroad spike. How did it get to the top of the mountain? More than likely, as we will discover later, it was found on the trail by another hiker and carried to the top and left behind. But now I was intrigued. Why was there a railroad spike here in the middle of nowhere with no signs of any type of railroad tracks present? We were about to discover more clues that would provide the answer to this question.
The following month we decided to go on another hike to our favorite spot. It had been a week of heavy rains and we didn't know what the trail would have in store for us. As we began our hike we noticed the flow of the stream that ran alongside the trail was so much heavier than normal. That along with the water dropping from the trees and plants made the energy of the forest very intense. The spirits were very active to the point that it started draining my energy and I had to go connect with a grandfather tree to restore my energy. We were the only ones in the forest, but could hear the sound of drums echoing throughout the mountains before us.
We continued walking, taking in the occasional sound of drum beats, and arrived at an area of the trail that had obviously been cleared out before and was currently used for a camping area. It was at this spot that I started discovering objects sticking up out of the ground along the trail. The water from the rainfall had caused the earthy trail to erode leaving the antique artifacts exposed. We were able to find another spike along with other types of tools used to build a railroad line. But why would these things be here in the middle of nowhere?
Days after our discovery I would begin to research the history of this area. What I would eventually discover was eye opening. There had been a railroad company hired to timber the mountains for the local community. One of the railroad lines ran right along the stream just as the trail does now. They would build the lines, timber the land and when they were finished, they would tear up the lines to be reused, leaving behind remnants to show they were once there.
The area where the trail had been cleared out could have been a spot where temporary housing was built for the railroad workers to live in. Also in this area is a pipe that suddenly appears out of the trail and then disappears back into the trail. This, as I would discover, would have been used to transport water from the stream to the railroad line to help power the mighty steam engine.
When the National Park Service bought the land, they would go on to establish hiking trails that took the place of the railroad lines that cut through the mountains. Many of the trails we hike on in the forest were former railroad lines used for timbering the mountains.
I had finally solved the mystery of the hidden artifacts, the cleared area and the mysterious pipe.
But, as the old saying goes, that is just part of the story. There is more to this than just discovering artifacts and former railroads. What impact does it have on the mountains? I do not know what type of timbering company was hired to do this work. I don't know if they had a desire to take care of the mountains, the land or the environment. But I can speak to a paranormal experience I had after my discovery.
I was walking the path again and I came to the area that was cleared. A sense of sadness and dread came over me. I could hear and feel the trees' pain as they watched their family members being cut down and hauled away. I had to get out of there. My heart was racing. I picked up my pace to get out of the area. Once I was away I stopped and hugged a tree. The tree started speaking to me. It told me that it was very upsetting to them and traumatic to experience the death of so many of their family. They are all connected and communicated with one another through their root systems. Even though they may have survived the damage, they still felt the pain. They wanted me to remove all of the artifacts from the area. Take them away so the memories of the timbering would not be sitting before them. It was sadness that brought me to this tree, but together we bonded even more and I would leave the trail that day even more connected than ever.
As I said earlier, I can't speak to the reputation of the timbering company, but I can speak to what the trees tell me. The mountains are thriving again in the area and the earth has taken back over what once was cleared out.
I think back to one of my first spiritual experiences on this trail when I met the two Cherokee warriors. They told me to tell others to take care of the land. To ask before you take anything. Did The railroad company ask before taking the trees? It's ironic that eventually the land and the trees would ask me to take something away. But it was something that did not belong there. Something left behind by humans who do not understand the connection and the importance of the relationship between man and Mother Earth.
What do we do with this? We need to understand that we are all connected including the animals and flora of Gaia. We need to respect the relationship we have with the Earth and Acknowledge the responsibility we have to take care of the land. We need to learn it, understand it and then pass it on to others.
I close by reminding everyone that we are all connected, we are all one. Let's love one another and take care of one another.
Blessings!
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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